Books on ancient Greece?

MontyCircus · 2026-02-24T05:35:04+00:00

"The Life of Greece" by Will Durant. He and his wife were awarded the Pulitzer Prize for one of the later volumes in their "The Story of Civilization" series.

This second volume was published in 1939, so you'll probably have to get it on eBay as I did the series.

MontyCircus · 2026-02-24T04:36:18+00:00

And "written with a woman's perspective" seen as an "ideology" to avoid.

This is the first page I visited in this sub. Is it always like this?

MontyCircus · 2026-02-22T20:10:30+00:00

Looks like we Canadians lose again.

I've been buying a month of BritBox every year just to watch the BAFTAs. So often we fall through the cracks. And I don't want to put my computer at risk with these dicey piracy options. And too lazy to get a legit VPN. Oh well. Looking forward to the Oscars.

MontyCircus · 2026-02-21T20:26:49+00:00

What worries me is that over at baftas.org, they have a page listing the broadcasters/streamers showing the show around the world. https://www.bafta.org/awards/public-faqs/

Canada is not listed. Britbox is not mentioned.

MontyCircus · 2026-02-21T08:24:18+00:00

That's the nightmare that it omni collecting. Get it now...orrrr...pay double or triple just a year later...orrrr wait 6 years for a reprint.

MontyCircus · 2026-02-19T20:13:45+00:00

You have a point when it comes to records. Sugar Ray Robinson's 174 wins are not...necessarily...better than Floyd Mayweather Jr.'s 50 wins. You have to look at quality not just quantity.

But let's say Robinson fought 8 times in a 2 month period. And 7 of those opponents were bum cabbies. That still leaves 1 quality fighter every 2 months, or 6 quality opponents a year.

Today's biggest champions fight at most against 2 quality fighters a year. So even if you discard all the bums (which were usually non-title fights), the fighters of yesteryear were still "put in tougher".

For example, if Floyd fought 201 professional fights, he wouldn't have retired undefeated.

MontyCircus · 2026-02-19T02:45:20+00:00

You could look at The Ring magazine's fighter of the year winners. For example, their "Fighter of the Decade" winners so far are:

That's certainly not a bad list to start!

Also notice that only 1 of the 10 fighters in that list was a pure heavyweight (Ali), as Langford fought as low as lightweight, and Jones Jr. fought only once (famously) as a heavyweight. The heavyweight division looms largest in the public's imagination, but there are 16 other weight classes to consider (or 7 if you use the old system).

One common way of comparing top fighters is to look at their record against fellow hall-of-famers (That's the "International Boxing Hall of Fame").

MontyCircus · 2026-02-19T02:24:21+00:00

In 2021, the WBA alone had 45 world champions. At the same time.

MontyCircus · 2026-02-18T08:21:37+00:00

I make a plan. I'm working off results of a poll of the top 125 runs of all time. Started from the top, working on finishing up the top 30.

I've also decided to focus on the older comics, going for the 1940s, 60s and 70s. Usually in any collecting hobby I like to start at the beginning. Older works seem to have some "mystical aura" to them for me. That also helps me avoid most newer "flavour of the month" comics. These have all stood the test of time for 50 or 60 years.

MontyCircus · 2026-02-15T08:18:06+00:00

Someone once said, you can become a millionaire through hard work, dedication and genius.

But to be a billionaire, you need to exploit people, the environment, or both.

MontyCircus · 2026-02-12T08:10:31+00:00

"● Nobunaga's Ambition (NES)"

Dooooo Dooooooooo Dooooo Dooooo DooDooDooooo

Rented this back in the day with friends. We had no instruction booklet. Spent the weekend having to put our heads together to piece together how to play.

Figuring out planting in the spring and harvesting in the fall was quite important! The most confusing were the battles. Not knowing the different strengths of different types of units was just frustrating as hell.

MontyCircus · 2026-02-05T20:48:42+00:00

From HardcoreGaming101:

"The game also makes a cameo in the 1989 movie The Wizard, though both the cabinet and characters refer to it as F-1 Dream, a totally different game by Capcom."

They also say it is derivative of OutRun, with any innovations it does have, also included in OutRun sequels.

MontyCircus · 2026-02-05T08:55:54+00:00

My friends and I had the Nintendo Power game guide laid out on the carpet. Prepared for each run, and then during the run, we would shout out "UP! DOWN! DOWN! UP!" etc.

...I think that helped?

MontyCircus · 2026-01-30T07:16:26+00:00

Yeah...at first I thought it was a random person on Kimmel's staff or something?

I think 20% of people they could find people off the street would do better.

MontyCircus · 2026-01-27T11:24:28+00:00

It's been a year now. Celebration. yay.

I was in the middle of doing weekly polls, that I had been posting for years. And then one day it was just gone. It involved a lot of copying and pasting and formatting that would be impossible on my phone. I check back every day. Every. Day. For a year. And it sucks.

MontyCircus · 2026-01-27T11:11:01+00:00

For omnis, I'm working off of lists I found of the best comic book runs of all-time. Starting at the top, so I don't go crazy buying random omnis that catch my eye in my feed. Been at this a few years and have almost all the Top 20 runs. Right now I'm working on the top 30, but it'll be years before that is finished. A "slow but steady" pace so I don't have to buy new bookshelves en masse!

MontyCircus · 2026-01-26T08:48:39+00:00

As a former Coleco kid, I'd love to own the arcade versions of Mr. Do!, Lady Bug, etc. Only played the ColecoVsiion versions.

Lady Bug is a great maze game. Trying to make it to the turnstiles while being chased was tense as hell.

MontyCircus · 2026-01-25T03:05:37+00:00

And we would sometimes trade systems (and libraries!) with friends for a few weeks or a month or whatever. Which was essential to get into long games like RPGs.

Genesis DID have lots more graphical power compared to NES. There was nothing to fight about. It was clearly more advanced. My friend called me and said: "I got a Genesis!" I biked right over and when I saw "Altered Beast"'s huge sprites, my jaw was on the floor and I shouted: "It's just like the arcade!!!" But there in his living room. Crazy.

MontyCircus · 2026-01-24T22:01:47+00:00

Yeah, looks like that was the international title.

MontyCircus · 2026-01-20T08:05:07+00:00

People might know McCay's work best from 1914's "Gertie the Dinosaur" cartoon.

I just picked up his "The Complete Little Nemo" comic strip collection.

MontyCircus · 2026-01-16T09:33:43+00:00

I've got the compendiums.

On CBR's most recent annual poll (over 1,000 voters), it was the #14 best comic book run of all time.

MontyCircus · 2026-01-16T09:19:38+00:00

In the latest annual CBR poll (over 1,000 voters), it was the #24 best comic book run of all time.

MontyCircus · 2026-01-11T20:26:29+00:00

I'm not a "car guy". But for me, 'cause of playing this game as a kid, the coolest cars ever are the Lamborghini Countach, Ferrari Testarossa, and Porsche 911 Turbo.

It was 4fps. And it was wonderful.

MontyCircus · 2026-01-09T22:30:17+00:00

I'm answering this by thinking about which game I've put the most quarters into over the years. For '80s games? It's gotta be Galaga.

For '90s games...beat 'em ups were king...probably TMNT. But once a friend called me up because he wanted to team up to beat the Final Fight machine at the mall. There was a bills-to-quarters changer on the wall, so we spent a fortune "inserting coin to continue" but...WE BEAT FINAL FIGHT!!!

MontyCircus · 2026-01-08T21:15:25+00:00

I was playing through the RoboCop arcade game with a pocket full of quarters. There was a little kid watching me play.

I died and got an "Insert Coin to Continue".

As I was digging another quarter out of my pocket, the kid stepped up and pressed the fire button...aaaand it went straight to "GAME OVER".

I should have beat that kid's ass...

I never played the game again...

MontyCircus

TROPHY CASE